Journal of Advanced Composition, Volume 11, Number 1, Winter 1991 Page: 10
This periodical is part of the collection entitled: Journal of Composition Theory and was provided to UNT Digital Library by the UNT Libraries.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
10 Journal ofAdvanced Composition
sometimes change radically.
Q. Has your colleague down the hall, Thomas Kuhn, ever discussed the
Chomskyan revolution in terms of a "paradigm shift"?
A. He hasn't, but other people have; I don't. My own view is that while there
have been several significant changes (Tom and I kind of differ on this),
there's been basically one scientific revolution: the Galilean revolution,
the seventeenth-century revolution stretching over a period including
Galileo. That was a real revolution, a different way of looking at things in
many respects. For example, there was avery sharp shift at that point from
a kind of natural history perspective to a natural science perspective. A
different attitude toward fact developed, a different attitude toward
idealization, a different concept of explanation. There was a complete
breakdown, especially with Newton, of the common sense notion of
mechanical explanation which led in new directions. Put all these things
together and I think that's a radical shift in perspective. Now there are very
few fields of human endeavor where that shift of perspective has taken
place. In the study of language, I think that shift did take place to an extent
in the 1950s. You could call that a "paradigm shift" if you want to use the
term, but it seems to me to be adapting the methods of the natural sciences
to another domain; in that respect, it's not really a dramatic shift.
Furthermore, even if you look at the basic intellectual developments
and changes in points of view associated with what's called "the cognitive
revolution" in the mid-1950s-of which the development of generative
grammar was a part and, in fact, a major contributing part-I think they're
quite real; but in a number of respects, rather critical respects, they
recapitulate and revise changes that took place during what I prefer to call
"the first cognitive revolution," namely in the seventeenth century. For
example, a major shift in the 1950s was a shift of perspective away from
concern for behavior and the products of behavior towards the inner
processes that determine behavior and determine the processes of behav-
ior. Now that's a shift towards the natural sciences because the inner proc-
esses are real. They're part of psychology, part of biology. So that's a shift
towards the natural sciences, away from behavior towards inner mecha-
nisms and inner processes that underlie behavior. It's also a shift towards
explanation rather than description. Now that's a big shift. But a shift like
that took place in what we might call the "Cartesian revolution" in the
cognitive sciences. Associated with this was a revival-it wasn't a new
interest-of interest in what are sometimes called computational models
of the mind, that is, theories of rules and representations, roughly. Now
that's part of the same thing because the inner mechanisms and inner
processes appear to be computational systems, mentally representative
and, in some unknown manner, physically instantiated. But that again is
highly reminiscent of something that took place in the seventeenth
century-in particular, Descartes' theory of vision, which was a crucial
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Periodical.
Association of Teachers of Advanced Composition (U.S.). Journal of Advanced Composition, Volume 11, Number 1, Winter 1991, periodical, 1991; (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc28604/m1/16/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .